Driver's ed background checks lacking
Sex offender's case may bring national tracking
By LISA SINK - lsink@journalsentinel.com
Posted: June 29, 2005
Brookfield - A registered sex offender from the state of Washington was able to get Wisconsin licenses for years to teach driver's education in Brookfield because Wisconsin licensing officials were unaware of his criminal background.
That's because the Wisconsin Department of Transportation does not conduct national criminal background checks of the estimated 700 commercial driving school instructors it licenses annually, checks that DOT officials say they now may pursue.
The DOT learned about William Webb's out-of-state 1992 child molestation conviction after Webb committed a new crime in Wisconsin - possession of child pornography - in his Milwaukee home.
Last week the DOT notified Webb, 43, that it was denying his license renewal application, and the Arcade Driving School, at Sears in the Brookfield Square mall, fired Webb as soon as it got word.
State and company officials say that since Webb first was licensed in 1997, they have received no complaints about his interaction with the teenagers
Company owner Melissa Dolney called Webb, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, a "very good employee." Dolney said she would never hire a sex offender, and that she plans to beef up the criminal checks she does on her employees.
Dolney used to check a state Web site listing Wisconsin Circuit Court criminal records before she hired someone. Now she said she may do annual checks after hiring, and pay for more formal background checks through the Wisconsin Department of Justice. But even the DOJ background check searches only Wisconsin criminal records, not national files.
While citizens may expect that state agencies, employers and even non-profit groups such as the Boy Scouts or Little League are routinely checking national criminal records, most are not. They do not have authority to view the national version of Wisconsin's criminal record database - the National Crime Information Center maintained by the FBI.
Karen Roscoe, a DOT specialist who supervises the commercial driver's education licensing, said that state law would have to be changed to allow DOT to access the FBI criminal database.
Law enforcement agencies have quick access to the national information center, which includes national criminal arrests, convictions and sentences. All they need is a name and date of birth. But other agencies that are allowed access to the national records, such as the state Department of Public Instruction, must have a fingerprint of the person they want to check.
DPI spokesman Joseph Donovan said that driver's education instructors employed by public school districts undergo background checks of Wisconsin criminal records. National checks with fingerprints also are conducted if the instructor has lived out of state for any period of time, "even a summer," Donovan said.
That means commercial driver's education school instructors are subject to less scrutiny than their public school counterparts.
An increasing number of school districts are dropping driver's ed courses due to budget pressures, prompting students to take lessons at commercial schools such as the one Webb taught at until last week.
The Elmbrook School District in Brookfield stopped offering driver's education a few years ago.
Dolney, the driving school owner, said she was surprised to learn DOT wasn't checking national records, and hoped that will change.
Roscoe said it was extremely rare for commercial driving instructors to have state criminal records that block licensure. She said that there were "maybe two" cases in which applicants had a Wisconsin conviction that barred them from teaching driver's education.
The DOT asks applicants if they have had a felony conviction in the prior five years, and that can be used to deny a license, Roscoe said. DOT also can consider convictions older than five years, she said.
When Webb applied for a license in 1997, he did not mention his Feb, 24, 1992, felony child molestation conviction from Washington, which landed him a 15-month prison sentence followed by two years of supervision.
Webb got his state driver's education instructors license on March 31, 1997. Dolney said Webb technically may have been just outside of the five-year reporting window.
From the June 30, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Story taken from the following website: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wauk/jun05/337524.asp
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